A collection of short stories by Ivan Raley

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed, before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:4

When Nehemiah hears the troubling words of his homeland, how it had been destroyed and was as a waste land his first thought, first action was to turn toward God.

We don’t see Nehemiah trying to place the blame, to curse the King who had enslaved him, to rant and rave at all the wrong things which had happened to his people as well as his homeland.

Nehemiah who had the opportunity is not plotting the death of the king. Instead we see him on his knees confessing his sin and the sins of his people. We see him weeping great tears of sorrow, not sending out shouts of foul play. We see him seeking an answer from God even when the answer includes the assistance of those who had enslaved him and destroyed his homeland.

He was willing to take his sorrow to God, confess his wrong and ask the Father for a way to victory. But look at us, we see the difficulties of our nation and we begin to assets the blame, to accuse our leadership, and cry foul to everyone involved. We blame ever group of people we can and we never once take any personal responsibility.

I wonder what would happen if the Christian people of this land would do as Nehemiah and weep, mourn, fast and pray to God. I am sometimes shocked at how judgmental we are and how we are so sure about one side or the other without even a moment of thought and concern of how thin our innocence is and how our greatest woe is that we will not get our fair share of the blessings of this great nation.

May I call upon you to realize this is not so much the moment of judgment and blame but rather it is a time of personal sorrow, powerful prayer, private confession, and a public call to kneel at the Cross and seek the face, forgiveness, and will of God?

You know it’s not too late for our country; God has blessed us from the snow cover ground of Washington’s frozen army at Valley Forge, to the shores of Normandy, through the islands of the South Pacific, and He will bless us now as we call upon Him.